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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Better than Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

Who needs to make a trip out in the cold on Christmas morning to pick up your families favorite cinnamon rolls? Just whip up a batch of these and you will be their breakfast hero!

Good morning my fellow foodies! Today began on a wonderful note, why you ask? I will tell you. My amazingly talented and awesome daughter (can you tell I kinda love her?) brought me an oven fresh cinnamon roll and hot cup of coffee in bed this morning. What an amazing way to start the day right? She also, being the good blogger daughter she is, wrote up a post to share with you all. So here you go......

I wasn’t able to sleep last night, and around 3:30 am, I decided that I wanted to make breakfast to surprise my family. So off to google I went, and about ten or so minutes later, I knew I had to make cinnamon rolls. It’s one of the things our household shares a love for, so what better way to start the day?

There’s actually a pretty interesting story behind me making cinnamon rolls. I’ve only made them one other time, while my mom and I were living in Poway, CA. I was in my first semester of my sophomore year of high school, and I needed a “make-up” dish for my cooking class since I had missed a kitchen day. After hours of searching online, I decided to make cinnamon rolls. I read the recipe and thought it sounded like fun. It was one that you made from scratch with yeast and water. My mom was going to be at a friend’s house that weekend, so I figured I’d make them then since our apartment was tiny and I didn’t want her to stress out from seeing a messy kitchen (and if you’ve ever baked, you know that it can get ridiculous).

Now, if you’re from beautiful Southern California, you know that there are wildfires almost every year. Well, it just so happened that the morning I was to make my rolls, a wildfire started a few miles away. However, I did not know this until I had gotten the dough all ready and turned on the television while I was waiting for it to rise. At first, I was a bit stressed, but, being only sixteen at the time, I thought “No way in hell is it gonna reach here.”

Wrongoooo!! Not long after I put the rolls in the oven (and they looked absolutely perfect, I was so excited), the news anchor announced that Poway was to evacuate immediately.

Many profanities ran through my head, and I quickly picked up the phone and called my friend to ask if her and her mother could come get me because I was alone. I packed a weekend bag, and just as I was headed out the door, the timer for the rolls went off. I took them out of the oven and was devastated because they looked amazing, but they were much too hot to take with me. I covered them in tin foil, heaved a sigh, and headed out the door. By the time they got the fire under control and my mom and I were able to safely return to our apartment, the rolls were stale…but we ate them anyway, and guess what? THEY WERE DELICIOUS!! My mom told me then, and has told me several times since, that my rolls were better than Cinnabon, but for some reason, I never made them again.

UNTIL NOW!!

It took me a little while to find the perfect recipe, and when I did, it was one that you would make in a bread machine. However, I have no clue how to use a bread machine, and my mom was still asleep, so I decided to pull from my memory and make the dough without one. After I made them and let them cool down a little (5 minutes TOPS! You want these bad boys to be hot, just not hot enough to scorch your mouth!), I took one in to my mom and upstairs to my brother, who had been up when I had the brilliant plan. Seth scarfed it down, taking a breath every now and then to say “Oh my God”, which was no surprise. Out of all of us, I think he’s the one who loves cinnamon rolls the most. My mom had still been sleeping, so she set it on her bedside table until she woke up a little more. When she got around to eating it, she loved it, making me a very happy little baker!

Instructions

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add the flour in quarters and mix well. It will get a little tough, but keep at it until it’s well mixed! If it starts to get way too hard to mix anymore, dust your hands with some flour and finish mixing it by hand.

Knead the dough into a large ball and put it back into the bowl. Cover it with a dish cloth and let it rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F

Roll dough into a large rectangle (Make sure not to roll it too thin, or it will rip when you roll it up). Spread dough with the softened butter and sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over it. Roll the dough up and cut into 10 rolls, (you can discard the two end bits). This will leave you with 8 good sized rolls.

Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about thirty minutes.

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together the ingredients for the frosting. Spread or drizzle it on warm rolls before serving.

These look great. I posted a little rolling and cutting tutorial on cinnamon rolls. It's based on my recipe as well. I use a bread machine too, I find them so easy! Take a look, if you'd like... http://lifecurrents.dw2.net/?p=5796

Tonight I made this to go along side the chili i also made. These are hands down thee most amazing cinnamon rolls in have ever had! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I poste a pic on Facebook about how wonderful they were and I had 4 friends ask for the recipe! Yummy!

Hi,I'm a new follower. I am so looking forward to trying these cinnamon rolls. I am diabetic and cannot have any sugar at all. I will be making these with splenda. I hope they turn out just as good as they look. Wish me luck. :o)

I freeze them all the time. Roll them up and slice them as usual. Store them in an air tight container in the freezer. Take however many you wish to bake out of the freezer and put them into your greased pan. Bake them as usual after they have thawed and risen.

You daughter rocks! These look amazing and can't wait to make them for my boys. Thank you for sharing on Thursday's Treasures Week 34. <3 and hugs sweetie! http://www.recipesformyboys.com/2012/05/thursdays-treasures-week-34.html open all week

These are really good! For the diabetics out there, you can use Agave Nectar. NO aftertaste! Just don't use as much as you would sugar, it's REALLY sweet! It's low on the glycemic index. You can find it at just about any grocery store on the top shelf near the artificial sweeteners. Agave is a cactus. Don't let that turn you off. Serious! I love this stuff. They have light and dark. Enjoy :)

From a fellow non yeast using baker to another I know what you mean!! The first time I tried to work with yeast it was an epic failure! I am so glad you made these and enjoyed them!!! My daughter will love it too :)

"Roll the dough up and cut into 10 rolls, discarding the two end bits" NOT!! Go ahead and cook the end pieces, it's a treat for the cook! After they cook, I spread butter on them and sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar. Yum and since they aren't really 'rolls' no calories are in them.;-)

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention! When the recipe put into the rich pin format somehow the amount was changed from 4 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups! I am so sorry for the confusion! I have fixed the amounts now.